Stopper for milk-bottles



No. 625;.IQ75I' Patented May l fi, I899.

E. m. PHILLIPS.

STOPPER FOR MILK BDTTL ES.

(Application filed Max-J1. 189B.)

a 7/ WITNESSES I'NVENTOR lJNlTED STATES PATENT OFFICE. it

ELIZABETH M. 'PHILLIPS, OF GLENBROOK, CONNECTICUT.

STOPPER FOR MILK-BOTTLES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 625,197, dated. May 16,1899.

Application filed March 4, 1899.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELIZABETHM. PHIL- LIPS, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Glenbrook, county of Fairfield, State of are in anyway familiar with the art that a common way of closing milk and creambottles is by means of a disk of paper hard-finished on its under side,which is forced into the neck of the bottle and rests upon a shouldertherein, thereby providing an air-tight closure for the bottle. It is aserious objection to these disks as ordinarily made that they can onlybe removed by a metallic instrument, the use of which must be by mak-'ing a fulcrum of the edge of the bottle. a The result is that the edgesof the bottles become chipped, large numbers of bottles are ruined,

and bottles not ruined are inconvenient, if not dangerous, to handleowing to the sharp edges at the top where the glass has, been chipped,and a still greater danger results from chips and fine particles ofglass getting into the milk or cream in the bottle. It has beenattempted heretofore to avoid the use of metallic instruments and theconsequent loss to the bottler and danger to the consumer throughchipping of the bottles by providing stoppers of :this class with tabsextending from the side thereof for the purpose of enabling a consumerto remove the stoppers by pulling upon the tabs. Thesetabs, however,have'been of uniform thickness with the stoppers themselves and havebeen objectionable owing to the fact that the tabs broke on the underside of the stoppers within the edges and permitted the milk or cream tosoak into the stoppers, that the tabs tore off when it was attempted toremove the stoppers, and that stoppers provided with tabs were much lessconveniently packed, the tabs extending out from the edges of the disksand beinglikely to become broken and if folded inward upon the stoppersthey Serial No. 707,744. on model.)

broke inside of the edges and practically ruined the stoppers.

My novel invention overcomes all of the objections enumeratedandprovides a strong and impervious stopper that will close the bottletightly and may be removed without the use of an instrument, therebyavoiding the possibility of injury to the bottle and without injury tothe stopper, so that the stopper may be replaced in the bottle if thecontents: are not all used, the stoppers, moreover, be-.

corresponding therewith, illustrating a looped form of tab and alsoshowing the stopper as providedwit-h a tab on each side; Fig. 3, aperspective illustrating a form of my invention in which the tab is madelonger and is not looped; Fig. 4., a plan view illustrating a form of myinvention in which the intermediate ply of textile material instead ofbeing a strip extending across the stopper corresponds in outline withthe stopper itself, an integral portion of said intermediate plyextending outward at one side to form the tab; and Fig. 5 is a sectionalview corresponding with Fig. 2, illustrating a form of my novel stopperin which a tab extends through and projects above one of the outer pliesof the stopper.

My. novel stopper consists, essentially, of

two outer plies, which I have indicated by a, and an intermediate ply b,which has formed integral therewith a tab 0, which extends outwardtherefrom. The outer plies are of paper or pasteboard and may eachconsist of any number of independent plies, the outer surfacebeing ofcourse hard-finished, so as not to absorb milk or cream under ordinarycircumstances. The intermediate ply may be of any'suitable textilematerial strong enough for thepurpose required. -For example,it may beeither a strip of tape or a strip of ordinary textile material, asindicated in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 5, or a full ply of textile materialcorresponding'in outline with the stopper itself, as indicated in Fig.4. The tab cis an will be apparent.

extension of the intermediate ply which extends outward in any directionfrom the stopper. Where the intermediate ply is a strip of tape or ofordinary textile material, the ends of the strip may be securelyfastened between the outer plies and the'tab may be in the form of aloop to receive the finger of .the operator, as indicated in Figs. 1 and5, or,

if preferred, a loop of the tape or textile material may be provided onopposite edges of the stopper, as shown in Fig. 2, or one end of thestrip may stop at one edge of the stopper and the other end extend anyrequired distance beyond the edge of the-stopper, as indicated in Fig.3. Where the intermediate ply is a sheet of textile material the samesize as the stopper itself, the tab consists simply of an extension ofthe intermediate ply beyond the edge of the stopper, as clearly shown inFig. 4E.

The advantages of my novel construction By making the tabs of textilematerial and textile material only I insure that the tabs will not breakoff in use, that being perfectly flexible they will not vbe in the wayin packing the stoppers for shipment, that there shall be no breaking orscoring of the under side of the stoppers to permit milk or cream tosoak in, and that the edges of the bottles will be closely engaged bythe edges of the stoppers entirely around, so that air cannot enter orthe contents ooze out, and by using the textile material in the form ofan intermediate ply only-that is,

placing it between plies of hard-finished paperI render it impossiblefor the textile material to become soaked with the cream or quantitiesby hand, as even where the tabsextend from the edge of the stoppers thetabs will lie close to the necks of the bottles and the lower half ofthe edge of each stopper will engage the neck of the bottle and theshoulder therein without the slightest danger of any break, check, orscore in the under side of the stopper, thus leaving it impervious underall ordinary circumstances.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. Astopper of the characterdescribed consisting of outer disks of paper and between said disks anintermediate ply consisting of a strip of textile material said stripextending outward from the disks to form a tab, substantially as shownfor the purpose specified.

2. A stopper of the ch aracterdescribed consisting of outer plies ofhard-finished paper and between said plies an intermediate plyconsisting of a strip of textile material having its ends securedbetween the outer plies and extending outward from the stopper to form aloop-shaped flexible tab.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ELIZABETH M. PHILLIPS. Witnesses:

JAMES H. LOUNSBURY, GEO. W. MESSINGER.

